It feels as though spring is on its way. I woke up yesterday, after a particularly windy and rainy night, to find dazzling warm(ish) sunshine streaming in through my window. As I emerged for my walk to campus I got that feeling, that only comes during this small window of the year, of the impending changes waiting to happen; life ready to emerge from it's long slumber.
I felt as though the trees were flexing their muscles, after weathering an especially brutal onslaught of wind and rain they had lasted the winter and now it was their time to flourish. Everything around me is just waiting to spring into life…
This is the time of the year when I feel closest to nature, there is so much around me that I can sympathise and empathise with. From the young plants who have sprouted too early (due to the warm winter), and paid the price, to the magnificent old trees, having passed through another year on their long, slow, journey. The young animals are preparing to have their first taste of life, with so much promise and so much possibility, while many adults are beginning the risky and fragile parenting process. The is so much to juxtapose, so much change, so much life.
I'm excited at the prospect of summer, by this time in the winter, even though it has been incredibly mild this year, I'm just waiting for the summer around the corner; I always have a romantic view of the seasons, but far more so when I am in the opposite season and I can take an unrealistic idealised view of what lies ahead. It's times like this when I get the urge to buy a camera…
http://thesimulacra.net/journal/2005/12/07/the-camera-eye/
Yep, I’m resisting at the moment…
There is definitely that feeling in the air, as it were. I get the sense that the human body is in tune to the change in seasons, to these natural cycles - it feels like a physical change as well as one of empathy with our surroundings. I love the uncertain, shifting quality of this time of year - somehow things seem unsettled, waiting for something new and exciting to happen, the next step. It is the transition periods between the seasons which are the best parts, being full of expectancy and tension. I can’t wait for the rainstorms and the clear, sharp sunlight and their cleansing effect on nature and people.
i am in the mountains at the moment, and here there seems to be no ’spring’. the people, in their language skip the season. here, it is now summer. i’m not quite sure of the reason for this as to me it is still very very cold. perhaps its due to the lack of flowers. perhaps the people are simply so eager for the influx of summer tourists that they want to get there as soon as possible. i think many people cannot wait for the sun to beat down upon the earth and bring to us its magnificent beauty once again. but i think because of that, its too easy to miss the beauty of the moment we are already in. i wanted to find a quote by watts to explain this in his wonderful poetic use of words but my landlords, who gamble online for most of the hours of the day are getting frustrated behind me.
sam back in china?
Yep: http://womende08.blogspot.com/ (click the pictures)
He updates it each day.